Bad Dog: How to Weed Out Bad Dog Behaviors

How to Weed Out Bad Dog Behaviors

Guest Writer: Eileen O’Shanassy

Dogs may be man’s best friend, but sometimes problem bad dog behaviors crop up, making them little more than a huge pest. These bad habits can be annoying, expensive, and even dangerous. Here are some easy ways to restore harmony to your household if you’re living with a difficult dog.

How to Weed Out Bad Behaviors

Be Consistent

Dogs thrive when they’re given clear rules and expectations. This doesn’t mean you have to be harsh, but you do need to be consistent. If you allow your dog to jump up on guests or steal food from the table sometimes, they will think it’s always okay to do. Make sure everyone in the household, including visitors, enforces the same rules all the time.

Stop Bad Dog Behavior Before They Start

Dogs act badly because they simply don’t know any better. Set your dog up for success by managing their environment. Supervise whenever possible and intervene before your dog can do something you don’t like. When you leave them alone, consider crating or confining them to a small, safe room.

Replace Bad Habits with Good Ones

Most bad dog behaviors come naturally to dogs. Punishing your dog may eventually get the message across, but it may take a while. It’s usually more effective to show your dog what you want him to do. If your dog rushes up to visitors and jumps on them, teach him to sit quietly on a mat when the doorbell rings, or if he starts to chew on a shoe, hand him a toy instead.

Turn Rude Habits into Cute Tricks

Some dogs love a particular bad behavior, which can make it hard to train away. In these cases, sometimes teaching your dog to do the behavior on cue can help, such as teaching a noisy dog a “speak” command. According to Groth & Associates – Toledo Personal Injury Lawyers, it might be best to make sure these behaviors won’t bother anyone else before you start training them.

Get Plenty of Exercise

There’s an old saying that goes, “A tired dog is a good dog.” Bored dogs tend to find their own entertainment, so make sure to exercise your dog every day.

Know When to Ask for Help

Some bad dog behavior problems are too big to handle alone. Aggressive behavior needs to be dealt with by a professional unless you want to risk hearing from a personal injury lawyer after a dog bite. Sudden behavioral changes may have a medical cause, so have those checked out by a veterinarian.

Dogs can disrupt a whole household with their bad dog behaviors, but most of them are eager to please and easy to train. With a little time, patience, and effort, you can find that good boy lurking inside your bad dog.

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“How to Weed Out Bad Dog Behaviors”

Guest Writer: Eileen O’Shanassy is a freelance writer and blogger based out of Flagstaff, AZ. She writes on a variety of topics and loves to research and write. She enjoys baking, biking, and kayaking. Check out her Twitter @eileenoshanassy.

10 thoughts on “Bad Dog: How to Weed Out Bad Dog Behaviors”

Great post! Two months after we adopted our dog she started whining and being very vocal to get our attention. It was cute at first but then she started doing it all the time. We didn’t know we were rewarding her behavior by giving her attention. So, we learned that it was best just to ignore her.

Hi Dale, I hope it didn’t take long for your dog to stop whining after you figured out you should ignore the behavior. Whining is so irritating! Thanks for your visit to Animal Bliss today. All the best. 🙂

To answer your question, yes, some unwanted behaviors pop up from time to time. Not because they’re challenging me but because they’re beings with intellect, unique personalities and curiosity. Just like us, I guess!

I totally agree with the writer on setting dogs up for success – always. I do this with my dogs and promote it on my site. I know you’re a firm believer in this strategy too.

Although the advice from the writer to relegate a dog to a crate or small room to stop bad behaviors before they start isn’t a long term solution. This does work in the interim until our pooches have learned what’s off limits. And I think we’d all have a hard time doing this for the rest of our dog’s lives.

In fact, I think making use of unwanted behaviors is the perfect way to teach alternative behaviors. The key here is rather to show our dogs what we do want them to do instead. And because dog’s are so intelligent they don’t take all that long to catch on. Especially when we’re using positive reinforcement.

Thank you for your response, Rosemary. I agree that dogs are intelligent and quick to learn if done in a positive manner. After all, all they want to do is make us happy, right? They’re so willing to love and be loved, that they’ll do almost anything for us, for better or for worse. All the best! Peace

Can you point me in the right direction to get some guidance on what to do with a dog that never tires. Pure bred black lab, 15 months old. Since the beginning, Ellie lives and breathes to fetch a ball. That is all she wants to do!! Sometimes when you don’t play, she gets aggressive: snarls and nips. She goes to day care every day because she has too much energy! She has been to two obedience trainings through a breeder and also a class for “tricks and fun stuff” to keep her occupied. She has continual digestive problems, and the vet next step is to do expensive and extensive testing to “find the problem” that they might not even find. A lot of background info on this, but looking for good sources.

Beckster, it sounds like you have a 2-year-old child on your hands. Black labs are like that. Our neighbors Chocolate Lab is like this too, non-stop! It’s tiring. I don’t know where I can direct you in particular, although I think you’re doing everything right. As for obedience schools, I had to take my German Shepherd Dog to 3 (maybe 4?) classes before she settled down to be a respectable citizen. Some just take longer than others. Plus, she’s only 15 months old, so she still has some maturing to do. Her aggressive makes me nervous. Make sure you keep that in check by redirecting to more positive things.Day care, another great thing you’re doing. All I can do from here is wish you the best with her, and persevere. Consistency and patience is key here. Thanks for visiting Animal Bliss!

Jeanne Melanson is just an ordinary gal from Nova Scotia, now living in Michigan.

Her animal family has included 13 Alpine Goats, 40 Chickens, 20 Turkeys, 3 Vietnamese Pot Bellied Pigs, a number of Turtles, 2 Raccoons, 1 Opossum , her share of Cats and Dogs, and a Bearded Dragon named Shirley.